Bob Dylan

1941

Bob Dylan is born in Duluth, Minnesota. His birth name is Robert Allen Zimmerman.

1959

Using the stage name Bob Dylan, the former Robert Zimmerman performs as a folksinger at the Ten O’Clock Scholar, a Minneapolis coffeehouse.

1961

Bob Dylan arrives in New York City, performing a few songs this same night at a hoot night at the Cafe Wha? Dylan had relocated here in order to visit his idol, Woody Guthrie, who lay dying in a New Jersey hospital.

1965

1965

The Byrds’ recording of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” reaches #1 on Billboard’s singles chart. It is the first and only #1 hit penned by Dylan.

1965

Bob Dylan is booed for “going electric” at the Newport Folk Festival when he is backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and keyboardists Barry Goldberg and Al Kooper.

1965

Highway 61 Revisited, by Bob Dylan, is released. Featuring keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarist Mike Bloomfield, it is his first all-electric album. It includes “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Desolation Row” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”

1966

Bob Dylan’s double-album classic, Blonde on Blonde, is released. Recorded in Nashville with session musicians, along with stalwart Dylan accompanists Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, it yields such classics as “I Want You,” “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” “Just Like a Woman” and “Visions of Johanna.”

1966

Bob Dylan performs with the Hawks (better known as The Band) at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. This electrifying concert becomes a popular bootleg, erroneously titled The Royal Albert Hall Concert. It is officially released as Live 1966, the fourth volume in Dylan’s Bootleg Series, in 1998.

1966

1966

Bob Dylan is injured in a motorcycle accident near Woodstock, New York. During his recovery he casually records new material with The Band. Selections from the roughly 100 songs they laid down are released, nearly ten years later, as The Basement Tapes.

1967

Woody Guthrie dies of Huntington’s Chorea at the age of 55. Dylan will perform at the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concerts, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the following January.

1967

Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits is issued while the artist is out of commission. It becomes his best-selling album and was, in 2001, certified five times platinum (5 million copies sold) by the RIAA.

1967

Bob Dylan releases John Wesley Harding, an album of apocalyptic folks songs recorded with country musicians in Nashville. Among them are “All Along the Watchtower,” which Jimi Hendrix will recast in a rock arrangement.

1989

Oh Mercy, by Bob Dylan, is released. Recorded in New Orleans with Louisiana musicians, it includes “Political World” and “Everything Is Broken.”

1991

Bob Dylan receives the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

1992

An all-star gathering of musicians pays tribute to Bob Dylan to mark his 30th anniversary as a recording artist. An edited version of the marathon-length Madison Square Garden concert is released in audio and video formats.

1993

World Gone Wrong, Bob Dylan’s 40th album – and second set of traditional folk songs in a row – is released.

1993

Good as I Been to You, an album of old folk and blues songs by Bob Dylan, is released. it is his first solo acoustic recording since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964.

1997

Bob Dylan is honored at the Kennedy Center. Dylan, actress Lauren Bacall, actor Charlton Heston, singer Jessye Norman and ballet dancer Edward Villella are recognized for making “significant and lasting contributions to the performing arts. They have been instrumental in uplifting the hearts and spirit of the American people.”

1998

Time Out of Mind, by Bob Dylan, wins Album of the Year at the 40th annual Grammy Awards. He also wins Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Cold Iron Bounds.”

2001

Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft is released the same day that religious extremists attack the U.S. using hijacked airplanes.

2002

Love and Theft, by Bob Dylan, wins Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 44th annual Grammy Awards.

2003

Fifteen of Bob Dylan’s albums are released in the hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD) format, representing a significant sonic upgrade of Dylan’s catalog. The titles are available individually or as a box set.

2005

No Direction Home, a Bob Dylan documentary produced by Martin Scorsese, debuts on PBS.

2006

Modern Times, by Bob Dylan, is released. It debuts at #1 on Billboard’s album chart.

2007

Bob Dylan’s Modern Times wins Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album at the 49th annual Grammy Awards.

2007

I’m Not There, a film that imagines the life and times of Bob Dylan, opens in U.S. theaters. A half-dozen actors (including Cate Blanchett) represent different phases of Dylan’s career.

2008

Bob Dylan is awarded a Pulitzer Prize, making him the first rock and roll musician to be accorded this high journalistic honor.